Best Budget Graphics Cards in 2023

With prices moving closer to MSRP for multiple SKUs, including Nvidia’s RTX 4000 series and AMD’s RX 7000 series offerings, we are seeing an emerging trend in the market: more competitive entry-level to mid-range hardware as the market gets propped up with an increasing amount of used and refurbished units that provide much better value than they did at this the same time last year.

This is further built upon thanks to AMD’s RX 7600 launch along with Nvidia’s RTX 4060 and 4060TI GPUs in tow, though the latter’s 16GB SKU is hard to find currently. These GPUs replace AMD’s aging RX 6600XT GPU as well as Nvidia’s RTX 3060 and 3060TI GPU, respectively at the same price point, meaning that most of our budget GPU picks have been overhauled to match the newer status quo of the gaming market.

There are three major players in the game now, in order of significance: NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel. The first two compete at various price points while Intel has been more or less focused entirely on the mid-range segment so far based on its ARC product releases aimed at disrupting the sub $300-500 market.

This does however also help us set a good precedent when it comes to what price range we should aim for to both make comparisons fairer and define what “budget” means. Based on the fact that budget might mean different things for different consumers, we will be looking at GPUs that range from ~$200 to $700 to cater to the bulk of our audience’s needs with regular updates in tow in response to newer GPU releases.

The ASRock Challenger D Radeon RX 6700 XT is an excellent mid-range GPU that trades at a sizable discount, offering Navi 22 chip as part of its arsenal bundled with an impressive 12GB of GDDR6 memory as it takes on Nvidia’s RTX 3060 and 3060TI with a minor pricing edge in tow. With rasterization performance that sees it even beat the higher-priced RTX 3060TI comprehensively, AMD’s ‘fine wine’ claims by some of its fans might hold ground as the 6700XT gains ground with every successive driver update, making a card that was originally considered a poor man’s RTX 3060TI now beating it comprehensively on more than just occasion.

At the core of the RX 6700XT is an RDNA 2-based core that is manufactured on a 7nm process. The Xbox Series S, Series X, and PS5 are also based on the same architecture which should make it a beneficiary down the line of developer implementation of select AMD technologies on said consoles being ported to PCs down the line.

At the same time, the Ray Tracing (RT) performance of the RX 6700XT comes up considerably short as does its own implementation of DLSS, AMD FidelityFX, which does help matters for the 6700XT but isn’t up there with Nvidia’s solution which is arguably superior and more mature as the tech goes, but that could change over time. Currently, however, at the price point it competes at, the RX 6700XT is a blend of value, performance, and features on offer that can not be bested easily, making it our best budget GPU pick by far.

Update: Despite the RTX 4060 being around, the RX 6700XT does hold its own in terms of raw performance, often beating the newer GPU. The extra 4GB of VRAM is also something that weighs heavily in the favor of AMD’s GPU, making it hold its position as the best budget GPU we can currently recommend especially since the RX 7600 seems slower, both on paper and in real-world use.

A bundled copy of Starfield makes the 6700XT just a better bargain to have over the RTX 4060, even as it offers a significant performance edge in play, making it our pick for the best budget-centric GPU.

The discrete GPU market has a new, not-altogether-surprising entry in the form of Intel which renews focus on the entry-level and midrange in a bid to both, cater to consumers looking for a budget purchase and shake the dominance of the two major other players (Nvidia and AMD) while taking lessons learned from the endeavor to (hopefully) make more powerful integrated GPU solutions within its CPU offerings. The Intel Arc A750 Limited Edition 8GB Graphics Card is no exception as it decimates its own competition, AMD’s RX 6600 and Nvidia’s RTX 3050 with ease in raw performance benchmarks and holding its own in ray tracing benchmarks in tandem.

Intel’s lofty goals are still within reach, but Team Blue will have to endeavor to work towards lower power draw, particularly in idle situations for its ARC GPUs if they are going to compete for efficiency vs other mobile and discrete competitors over time. Intel’s ongoing endeavors with its GPU drivers should improve things somewhat but in their current state, the ARC lineup handles DX12 titles quite well while falling short on more dated titles that use legacy versions of DirectX.

We do expect support to improve over time and as the A750 holds its own distinctly versus its competition unless power draw is a core reason in your purchase philosophy, the A750 is as solid as they come for an entry-level budget GPU purchase.

Update: The Intel Arc A750 is aging well and currently does trade at a discount over its previous pricing, making it an interesting and value-centric GPU pick that remains at the top of our list for a budget-centric AMD GPU.

The Gigabyte Radeon RX 7600 Gaming OC 8GB is an excellent GPU that also clocks in as the best budget AMD graphics card on offer. It features 8GB of DDR6 memory, a newer Navi 33 core, with significantly higher clock speeds on offer. It rounds off with excellent build quality and a massive, somewhat overkill tri-fan cooler, making it an excellent GPU to consider if you are on a budget in 2023.

That being said, it does have its quirks; AMD’s RX 7000 series GPUs still underperform their Nvidia equivalents when it comes to Ray Tracing and the 8GB of GDDR6 memory might be a limiting factor for certain titles as higher texture sizes have made games more demanding in terms of GPU VRAM lately.

However, thanks to its pricing advantage as well as premium build quality at an entry-level price for the RX 7600 SKU, the Gigabyte Radeon RX 7600 Gaming OC 8GB seems to have its bases covered when it comes to AMD fans and people hunting for a relative bargain in a slowing GPU market simultaneously.

The MSI GeForce RTX™ 4060 VENTUS 2X BLACK 8G OC is an excellent, compact RTX 4060-based GPU by the Taiwanese AIB that delivers better-than-stock performance for an RTX 4060 GPU while costing the same as a Founder’s Edition.

It goes for a no-frills design that prioritizes function over aesthetics which might not appeal to all gamers, especially ones that are fond of using RGB lighting extensively and may look to the much pricier RTX 4060 options instead.

All in all, despite the negative press and consumer feedback that followed the RTX 4060 (and RTX 4060TI) since their release, they do happen to be the best-priced RTX 4000 (or 3000) series GPUs on offer currently, making this an easy recommendation for users looking for an upgrade or a new GPU. Users looking for a similarly priced alternative to their RTX 3060 or 3060TI GPUs however, might want to wait for a better upgrade down the line.

The Gigabyte Radeon RX 6600 Eagle 8G Graphics Card is an entry-level AMD RX 6600-based GPU that has an overkill cooling system and a profile to match given the chip it sports, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing from both an aesthetic or cooling perspective in the long term. While it isn’t the strongest performer on our list, it does do a decent job for its price and target resolution of 1080P even if it takes a hit on Ray Traced content, which is a mainstay issue for AMD hardware currently, with both Intel and Nvidia’s implementations of the tech being considerably superior to Team Red’s.

The upside of the RX 6600 is that it is a relatively power-efficient GPU that can run on most computers without needing a dedicated PSU purchase due to its limited power draw needs. The RX 6600 Eagle by Gigabyte does feel like an over-engineered version of the GPU by an AIB and as we stated earlier, is not necessarily a bad thing, but it could be a limiting factor for some users looking for a lower profile budget GPU in the same trim. Thankfully other vendors such as XFX have you covered with a smaller form-factor SKU that performs similarly, albeit at a $10 premium at the time of writing.

Update: Higher prices on the RX 6600 GPUs, as well as the emergence of a newer RX 7600 offering, means that the RX 6600 is becoming a less favorable option of late for users who can get much more value for money for ~$50 more. But currently, if your budget is limited, the RX 6600 might be your only affordable option in the market.

The Intel Arc A770 Limited Edition is part of Team Blue’s ongoing push to capture the burgeoning mid-range GPU market and is an excellent first attempt by the CPU juggernaut as it attempts to push into the discrete GPU market en masse using a mix of value and raw power under the hood. As with most new products competing in a well-established market, it does suffer from well-entrenched competition from both AMD and Nvidia which have arguably better software support from developers and their own drivers on offer.

The Arc A770 however does have a few tricks up its sleeve. It has excellent Ray Tracing performance on offer, pushing 16GB of GDDR6 memory in a market segment that is currently crowded by 8GB and 12GB SKUs, and throws in superior DX12 compatibility and support for current-gen and upcoming titles even as last-gen titles do take a significant performance hit.

To do so, Intel relies on PCI-E 4.0 and Resizeable Bar, however, which in a nutshell is a PCI-E implementation of access to a GPU’s frame buffer directly by the CPU, allowing for faster performance in a variety of tasks and applications, with a focus on gaming. This makes the Arc A770 an excellent upgrade for current-gen PCs but one that you should consider avoiding if you are pairing it with dated hardware such as an older motherboard. There are (sometimes) cheaper 3rd party SKUs of the A770 out there that you should consider if you are in the market however that should help you make a more price-savvy purchase versus the stock option at times.

Update: Intel’s ARC A770 is currently sold out at various retailers as it sees itself being supplanted with ASRock’s equally good trifan offering. As the best Intel discrete GPU money can buy currently, it also offers RTX 3060TI-esque performance but limits its VRAM capacity to 8GB, making it less of a veritable bargain as a result.

The ASUS Dual GeForce RTX 4070 OC Edition is an excellent RTX 4070 SKU that delivers excellent performance at a price that pushes towards the upper echelons of the performance and price graphs but is somewhat digestible given what is on offer in terms of solid DLSS 3.0 and better Ray Tracing performance in addition to fast GDDR6X memory on offer making it the ultimate 1440P GPU currently at a relatively high $600 price tag, a common theme in the RTX 4000 series as Nvidia prices GPUs in a bid to allow it to clear older RTX 3000 series GPUs with ease.

While a lot of Nvidia fans are somewhat disappointed by Team Green’s less-than-aggressive pricing this generation, one cannot deny that in the case of the RTX 4070, if you are looking for an excellent high-end GPU at the sub $600 mark, you can’t really go wrong with Nvidia’s latest and greatest, even if it isn’t truly a value upgrade from the RTX 3000 series if you have an RTX 3070 or up unless you plan to max out RT or DLSS 3.0 performance with rasterization gains at a minimum at a similar price point as the RTX 3080.

That being said, the RTX 4070 is a capable GPU on its own with significant power under the hood, the ability to play games much more smoothly due to Nvidia’s frame-gen tech as part of its DLSS 3.0 offerings and stellar Ray Tracing (RT) performance under the hood, all of which make it a viable choice for gamers.

Update: There is no price movement on the RTX 4070 in general and the ASUS variants seem to also experience a price floor of $600 lately. That being said, for the lack of better competition the RTX 4070 is here to stay and ASUS’s dual OC offering is one of the better SKUs money can buy.

What should you look for in a budget GPU?

Performance: Core to every GPU’s viability for your use is the GPU’s performance during rasterization. For budget GPUs, where Ray Tracing is less of a factor compared to the ability to play all titles at a respectable resolution with decent frames per second (FPS), a GPU’s raw performance often determines if it suits your needs as a gamer or a professional.

Memory: As modern games get increasingly memory-intensive thanks to larger textures and more monolithic game engines, it is crucial to make sure your GPU has enough memory to run modern titles without resulting in severe performance crippling due to memory limitations. Currently, a minimum of 8GB of VRAM is considered adequate for entry-level gaming GPUs.

Cooling Options: Modern GPUs run hot and require dedicated cooling. Thanks to advances made in GPU tech, they also are able to boost to higher clocks if their temperature and voltage readings allow it, something often called a ‘boost clock’ feature. Therefore, having effective cooling is more important than just having the largest possible cooler in play; smaller, copper-based coolers with good fans will often outperform much larger GPU coolers in many cases, making some of the larger tri-fan GPUs, especially when on a budget, a purely aesthetic decision.

Size: Some GPUs are oversized with larger coolers and might not fit in all cases. It is always a good idea to check for length measurements, the number of slots a GPU requires as well as those of your case in terms of space to ensure you have a GPU that fits your case without causing issues.

FAQ

Q: How long do cheap graphics cards last?

Regardless of the price of the GPU a newly purchased GPU should last several years. In terms of game support, most games should support GPUs for quite some time, until the technology is seen obsolete by game developers, it is hard to give an estimate on that one though.

Q: How to choose the best cheap graphics card for you?

The first thing you should do when looking for a new budget friendly GPU is to go through all your favorite games or games you are looking to play and see what the requirements are. After that consider if you want to play these games in 1080p or 1440p, or what resolution your monitor is if you don’t have a preference one way or another. If you are using a 1080p monitor there is no need to spend that extra money on a card that supports 1440p.

After going through those two steps the list of options should be narrowed down quite a lot. Then you just have to define the top of your budget, and eliminate or add features that you want like DLSS or ray tracing, until you find the perfect card for you.